Uniqueness and novelty are generally considered to be the founding principles of creativity in the arts. These principles, however, are often challenged in the digital art space where the proliferation of unauthorized digital copies makes it close to impossible to prove the ownership or the authorship of the artwork in question.

The blockchain technology comes as a long-sought solution for the digital art space providing an opportunity to not only limit the number of copies as intended by the artist but also to create unique non-fungible versions of the digital masterpiece. So, what makes this technology so groundbreaking for digital artists and their markets?

First of all, blockchain-based platforms allow artists to register the copyright and provenance information for their art supporting digital uniqueness and scarcity. Verisart is one of the first platforms to help artists issue certificates of authenticity for their works on the blockchain. Founded by Robert Norton, former CEO of Saatchi Online and Sedition, the company is using blockchain technology to ‘protect records of creation and ownership to verify the authenticity of artwork’.

In addition to supporting the authenticity of the art, digital scarcity also opens new business opportunities for both artists and collectors. One can observe the continuous growth of the online marketplaces to trade digital art and crypto-collectibles such as CryptoKitties and CryptoPunks. Some of the marketplaces, like Rare Bits, make it easy for collectors not only to buy and sell their crypto assets with zero fees but also manage their crypto-collectibles portfolio and get educated about new crypto-assets coming up.

Finally, the immutable nature of blockchain and an option to create infinite fractions of each piece open digital art space to creative uses of the technology. One of the exciting developments in the field is the collaboration between Snark.art, a digital laboratory for art and technology, and Eve Sussman, an established video, film and installation artist. The result of this collaboration, an original Ethereum-based artwork, 89 seconds Atomized, is ‘taking Sussman’s seminal 2004 video work 89 seconds at Alcazár and transforms it for the blockchain’ to be collected and interacted with in a new conceptual way.

Summing it up, digital art is definitely one of the most obvious candidates for utilizing the blockchain for the art market. Access to state-of-the-art technology like AI and VR provides artists with new digital tools to create works that would be unimaginable just a few years ago while blockchain helps creators to secure the authorship of their pieces. But, most importantly, blockchain and its adoption in the art world, is a crucial next step to elevate the status of digital art, making it more desirable for the global collector community and placing it to the same level as the more traditional art.